Live Review: Steve Poltz - Mojo's Bar

For a man who's played every night since his Australian tour started early this month, Steve Poltz has definitely found a way to bottle up some magical source of unlimited energy. The forever smiling troubadour performed for almost two hours straight, alternating between singing songs and spoken word, where he started reading stories off his iPhone, which included a newly written track about chewing nipples. Poltz was consistent all night, telling stories that seem too crazy to be true, and got the audience to break out in bouts of laughing fits. The crowd was filled with regular fans who cheered each time a familiar song like Sewing Machine started, and clapped along to anything with a beat.
While chatting with the crowd he admitted his love for all things musical, and ended up breaking into a rendition of a song off Avenue Q. Poltz later mixed it up by sampling his voice and creating beats just by using his loop pedals, inventing a song on the spot. He then kicked the energy up a notch when he introduced local musicians Malcolm Clark, Steve Hensby and Lee Jones as his band, The Poontangos. It brought about a heart-warming feeling, like seeing old friends get together around the fireplace. The band played Slovenia Breeze and Dreams 23, which were songs that Poltz recorded in Clark's studio a few years back. The San Diegan then decided to challenge our Perth musicians by getting them to improvise on stage on a cover of much loved Irish song Raglan Road. True to their form, Jones caught onto the melody in a flash, and the twang of his lap steel melded ever so smoothly with Hensby and Poltz's guitar strumming.
You could tell no one wanted the night to draw to a close, the crowd begging for more songs as the night carried on. Sadly, all good things had to come to an end, and without fail, Poltz, along with The Poontangos, entertained by jumping off stage and completed the night in the midst of the crowd with his hypersonic, word regurgitating, unplugged version of Dick's Automotive.